Pigs and horses?! Is this true?

[karenjj]

I don't know if anyone can confirm this or not but someone at work said they have a few pigs at home which dig up all their thistles/docks in their fields and keep the grazing good for their horses. I have never heard of this before is this true?!

 

[Sprout]

I dont know the answer - but would like to!

 

[zizz]

My pigs would destroy any grazing, they dig up everything not just docks and thistles!
TBH I'd be wary of grazing horses on areas where pigs have been due to the high copper content of the pigs dung.

 

[Kenzo]

I was always told that horse don't care for pigs...as in can't stand the things, but then I've never experianced it myself so I couldnt really say for sure

but I know alot of people say that horses don't like pigs.

 

[kirstyhen]

We have a couple of Kune Kune pigs here, they don't root the ground as much as normal pigs, but I still wouldn't like to graze my horse in with them, too many ruts!
They also have plenty of docks and thistles in their paddock, so can't root them up that well!


Hen was terrified of the pigs at first, but he is fine with them now and my YO has a picture of one of her youngsters lying down with a pig either side of her in the barn

 

[Aoibhin]

the yard i used to be on kept pigs (in stys) and none of the horses batted an eyelid after the first few days.
like all new things they are wary at first.

i wouldnt keep my boy loose with pigs as like Zizz said they dig up everything & makeeverywhere churned up.

 

[TPO]

There were pigs on my last yard and all the horses were terrified of them. They were in the fields down the side of the driveway so it made any attempts to hack out "interesting". I spent a lot of time walking my horse past them and what not but he still wasn't keen and used to rush past them.

TBH the pigs made an absolute mess of the fields they were in so would have thought they would have trashed grazing fields. Also they can escape from anything and on the last yard they put up sheep wire fences that were electrified and they had a strand of electric wire just above the ground. I wouldn't have thought that this was suitable fencing for horses...

 

[Enfys]

My uncle used to call pigs 'the lazy mans' plough' put them in an overgrown field for a few months and they will dig it up for you beautifully unless they are ringed.

Horses can get on perfectly fine with pigs given time. Mine used to graze with them all the time, very useful creatures at acorn time as they'll hover up acorns with gusto.

 

[Donkeymad]

Oh yes, they dig up all the thistles and docks - and absolutely everything else in the field too. Good grazing? No. more like NO grazing.

 

[Archangel]

My horse had two in with him and they rootled through everything and ate his tail

In the end they had to be sectioned off and they completely cleared everything in their run, grass included.
I loved them and so did the horse. They were so clean (one toileting area outside their little house, never inside).
If I had a really overgrown area (waist high brambles etc) I would def stick a couple of pigs in after seeing what they can do - and then take them out again when they had done their work!

 

[V1NN]

Dont knowifthis is right, i heard that pigs give off a certain hormone and horses can smell it and it freaks them out??